Gary Kurtz, the producer of the first two "Star Wars" films andthe man who famously walked away from the franchise in 1980 -post Empire Strikes back has a new project, Panzer 88.

Kurtz describes it thus “It’s a good, good project, you haven’t seen anything like it for a while. It’s a visceral, reality-based story with horror overtones, and the idea is to have it be like the best of the graphic novels these days.” The script is co-written and to be directed by Peter Briggs (Hellboy, Alien vs Predator), Panzer follows “the five-man German crew of the Ilsa — a King Tiger Panzer, the biggest tank of its day — on a mission to the frigid and fearsome Russian border, where they tread into an ancient mystery by stirring a powerful entity.” The independent production begins shooting this winter on a slim $20 million budget.

“We’re aiming to do for the tank genre what Hunt For Red October andCrimson Tide did for submarine flicks. Only, with a supernatural twist. We’re upping the ante with visuals, equipment, and scenes that have never been seen in a World War II milieu. In retrospect, it’s strange nobody’s thought to do this in quite this way before.”

Given the limited funds, I’m assuming that Briggs is referring more to a visual ingenuity than an effects extravaganza. Briggs is also attached to direct his original screenplay, "Mortis Rex," with Jim Jacks producing, and U.K. sales and finance house Intandem handling international sales duties.